It is hard, of course, for a party to rally behind an agenda when it's out of the White House, and there's plenty of concern after she became an issue in the Georgia election that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is too polarizing a figure to lead such an effort.
It would seem Trump thinks the latter is true, and he would rather have Pelosi stick around because of it. Despite a series of historic losses resulting in the party's worst position in almost a century, Democrats convinced themselves that their philosophy was shared by a majority of the country. "The House remains in play now".
Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas), who supported Pelosi's re-election last fall, told Politico on Wednesday, "I think you'd have to be an idiot to think we could win the House with Pelosi at the top".
That the Pelosi-bashing continued to hurt Democrats - already struggling to get their bearings after Trump's win in November - left some fuming after a morning meeting Wednesday. "Ossoff will vote with Pelosi", some of those ads said. "That would be very bad for the Republican Party". But here are some things we can say after Tuesday night, in the form of winners and losers. Heck, one-third of the Democratic caucus got it past year, when it voted in vain to replace Pelosi with OH congressman Tim Ryan.
Voices within the Democratic party, including Rep. Kathleen Rice (D., N.Y.), are calling for new leadership. "It's time for some change". Big donors to the party's congressional campaign committee were also available to Pelosi through her "Speaker's Cabinet" program, which gave them special access to the Democratic leader. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders insisted that they demonstrated important progress by coming in a close second, and have a good shot at taking back the House in next year's midterm elections.
"One of the disappointing things from the last couple of days is that that approach still has a little bit of punch to it".
She benefits from a dearth of younger colleagues tagged as heirs to her leadership, and no up-and-coming Democrat can match her fundraising skills, no matter which figures are used.
But Pelosi maintained that familiar GOP strategy only proves she is an asset.
Nancy Pelosi lauds her own leadership record after Democratic losses
She said she has told Democrats to stop focusing on Russia's meddling in the 2016 election. She acknowledged the attacks but added: "I think I'm worth the trouble".
Behar responded by claiming: "Generally speaking, Republicans vote in bigger numbers than Democrats".
She continues to command a great degree of loyalty from many House Democrats, and allies dismissed the idea that her position was in any kind of jeopardy.
"They had a debate, and each got to ask one question", he said.
Still, the election results do tell us something about this moment.
They argued that the Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff's loss in the Republican held House seat in the Atlanta suburbs was further evidence that the party needed both a new message and messenger.
It took a heavy dose of voter suppression, along with dirty tricks, tens of millions of dollars, the GOP keeping its healthcare plan secret and the full force of the Trump regime to defeat Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia.
"She's easy to demonize".
Pelosi says the Democratic base is energized, adding, "We must now put forth our message". Losses by Republicans in any of those races would likely have hastened the retirement of incumbents in competitive districts and would have emboldened strong potential Democratic candidates to jump in. And running simply on an anti-Trump message - like Clinton tried and failed a year ago - wouldn't work for Democrats in 2018 either, no matter how mired in scandal and controversy over Russian Federation the White House may be.
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